The New Psychology of Dreaming

Abstract

<i>The New Psychology of Dreaming</i>is not so much what the title states as a reevaluation of the old psychology of dreaming, in the light of new evidence from recent electroencephalographic (EEG) studies of sleep. We may forgive this misnomer, since the author's major premise holds that the findings of sleep research, unavailable to Freud, must now be incorporated into dream theory. Of particular interest in this context are investigations of periodic rapid eye movement (REM) activity, found to correlate highly with reported dreaming. In addition to arguing that much of Freudian dream theory is corroborated by recent sleep research, the author discusses approaches to dream interpretation and theory by post-Freudian authors, and presents his own preferences and views on the directions to be taken by a revised psychology of dreaming. He also summarizes current theories on the function of dreaming, and, while admitting that none is sufficiently well-based to